A trust or company service provider is a person who, as a business, forms corporations or other legal persons for others; acts, or arranges for another person to act, as a director or secretary of a corporation, as a partner of a partnership, or in a similar position; provides a registered office, business address or correspondence address for a corporation or partnership; or acts, or arranges for another person to act, as a trustee of an express trust or as a nominee shareholder. The definition is in Schedule 1 of the AMLO (Cap. 615).
Since 1 March 2018, Part 5A of the ordinance requires a TCSP to hold a licence from the Registrar of Companies, who must be satisfied that the applicant and its ultimate owners, partners and directors are fit and proper. Carrying on the business without a licence is an offence punishable by a fine of HK$100,000 and six months' imprisonment. Banks, licensed corporations whose trust or company work is ancillary, solicitors and accounting professionals are exempt because they are regulated elsewhere. The Registry publishes the register of licensees and its disciplinary decisions.
Duties
A licensed TCSP must carry out customer due diligence under Schedule 2, keep records, report changes in its ownership and management, and follow the Registry's guideline. Most published disciplinary cases concern due diligence failures: clients verified from copies, beneficial owners not identified, or no evidence of the source of funds.
How Fill Easy relates to it
Company secretaries and TCSPs order the registry records for their clients through CorpVerify, from Hong Kong company particulars to BVI and Cayman searches, and re-check a whole client book before a licence renewal through monitoring and remediation. Our legal and professional services page covers the workflow.